When Google launched their Voice service a couple of years ago, people made a big deal about what their move into the telecom world meant. In a print-only interview with New Scientist Peter Norvig, Google's head of research, said the main reason they launched the service was so they could better learn how to transcribe human voice to text.

And it makes sense when you think of it. Besides voicemail transcription, the audio data can go a long way towards improving other services such as Translate and voice search. And while nobody is actually listening to your inane ramblings, maybe you shouldn't say anything too scandalous and/or incrimination when using Google Voice, ya know? [Cartesian Product via Slashdot]